A parallel optical fiber connector system of the family that includes Multi-fiber Push-On (MPO) and Multi-fiber Termination Push-On (MTP) facilitates coupling of parallel optical signals. A male connector of this type has a housing or body with a number of parallel optical ports (for example, twelve optical ports) on a flat mating face and two guide pins extending from the mating face. A female connector of this type has a housing or body with a corresponding number of optical ports on a flat mating surface and two openings or bores in that surface. The housing or body can serve as a fiber ferrule by retaining the ends of respective optical fibers of a parallel optical cable in alignment with the optical ports. To mate the male and female connectors, the ends of the guide pins are directed into the bores as the mating faces of the two connectors are brought together. In the fully mated position, corresponding optical ports of the male and female connectors are optically aligned with each other, and the guide pins extend into the bores. The portion of each guide pin that extends from the mating face of the male connector is commonly cylindrical, with a tip that is either frusto-conically shaped (i.e., chamfered) or, alternatively, blunt.
In a system in which both the male and female connectors terminate respective optical ribbon cables (each cable having, for example, twelve parallel optical fibers), the system can be used to couple the optical signals from one of the optical ribbon cables into the other. The system can also be used to couple optical signals between an optical ribbon cable and an optical device such as an optical transceiver module. A transceiver module includes electrical-to-optical (E/O) converters, such as lasers or other light sources, and optical-to-electrical (OLE) converters, such as photodiodes or other light detectors. An optical transceiver having a male connector of the above-described type is known.